Thursday, August 26, 2010

I'm not a Witch!

I've been calling my wife 'my wif' since the day we were married. I do it because I like to misquote Valerie, Miracle Max's wif, err wife. Mostly I get odd stares when I do it, but shut-up, it's my thing.

Anyway, today I've been vindicated! In the 1st millennium English language, i.e. Old English, there were 3 pronouns used to describe humans: One for male, one for female, and one for person. Exactly like certain groups want today! Oddly enough the 3 words broke down like this:

Male : wer
Female : wif (yay!)
Neutral : man

'Wif' eventually became wife, 'man' became the neutral reference as well as the word for male, and the word 'wer' came to be a prefix for shape changing humans.

Thanks new fun blog!

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